1. Role of reviewers

Peer reviewer’s role is to advise editors to accept, revise, or reject individual manuscripts. Judgments should be objective and comments should be lucidly described. Scientific soundness is the most important value of the journal; therefore, logic and statistical analysis should be considered meticulously. The use of reporting guideline is recommended for review. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest. Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited. Reviewed articles are managed confidentially. The editorial office is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript based on reviewers' recommendation.

2. Ethical guideline for reviewers 

(1) Any information acquired during the review process is confidential.

(2) Please inform the editor on any conflicts of interest as follows:

 A reviewer belongs to the same institution as the authors.

 A reviewer is a competitor.

 A reviewer may have an antipathy with the authors.

 A reviewer may profit financially from the work.

In case of any of the above conflicts of interest, a reviewer should decline to review. If a reviewer wishes to review the manuscript, the conflicts of interest should be specifically disclosed.

(3) A reviewer should not use any material or data originated from the manuscript in review; however, it is possible to use open data of the manuscript after publication.

3. How to write review comments

(1) Comment to authors

Please concentrate on the scientific soundness and logical interpretation of the manuscript. Please make a specific comment according to the order of each section of the manuscript. Marking the page is good to trace review comments. Consider if the peer review opinion may increase the quality of manuscript or further research by author. 

(2) Comment to editor

The reviewer’s special opinion to editor can be added. It is not seen by author.

4. Post-review work by the editorial board

The review opinions and decisions made by reviewers may be analyzed by the editorial board without identifying reviewers.

5. Certificate of review

If certificate of review is required, please contact the editorial office.